Intro to Sound Design

Designing Your Sounds

Sound is language. Language is sound.

The role of sound in design- Its like using a universal language that is already understood by everyone. - Hugo Verweij, sound designer at Apple

Tools Of The Trade

Many techniques and parameters can be used to create your sound, whether it be from samples or your own recordings. To achieve this you need the right software, and in some cases hardware, to accurately sculpt any sound into the correct representation of your elements.
 Did you know that Apple used a bare casing of their Apple Watch and hit it with a percussion mallet to get their notification sound? Talk about originality, huh!

Audacity

Audacity is a great _free _sound editor to start off with. It’s open source and cross-platform audio software that supports multi-track recording and editing. The simplicity of its UI makes this sound editor very impressive.

Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is a more complex and thorough software that also supports multitrack and audio editing. You can create, mix and edit video content. This powerful audio-video software is designed for pristine sound.


Logic Pro X

Logic Pro x gives you powerful tools to create your sounds from scratch with software based synthesizers and a big collection of effect plug-ins. If you started out creating your sound on GarageBand, your garage band projects would open in Logic Pro allowing you to put the finishing touch on your project. Control Logic Pro X from your iPad or iPhone with Logic Remote.

Cubase Pro 9

Cubase Pro 9 is a favourite among many sound designers and film score composers. It has the same features as its counterpart, Logic Pro, but in my experience, the UI is more powerful and user-friendly. Cubase is considered as the most complete DAW on the market today. Cubase excels by putting creativity first and offering maximum flexibility.

Hardware

Different hardware is needed for different tasks. For simple sound recording, it is recommended to get a decent microphone and sound card to make your recording as pristine as possible. Also if you want to take your original UI sounds to a higher level, you can buy hardware synthesizers. Compared to its software clone, hardware synthesizers have a richer and more detailed sound. Its only drawback is that it can only used it for one instance, and recall for existing projects is time consuming and difficult. Below you will find examples of what to buy and how to get you started so you can achieve the best possible sound.

Apogee mic 96k

Apogee mic 96k is a USB microphone which directly connects to your iPad, iPhone, Mac or Windows computer. This microphone is perfect for a beginner sound designer or voice over artist as it captures its users unique recorded elements without the need of an external sound card.

Audio-Technica AT4040

Audio-Technica AT4040 is a great microphone with high-SPL capability for the greatest versatility when recording sounds and voiceovers. It’s a great mic for sound designers who wants to take their recording to a more professional level.

Akg C414

Akg C414 if you want to take your recording to the next level, this microphone is highly recommended. With its Multi-patterns, it’s capable of recording the most detailed and honest representation of your source. It’s considered by many top pros as the universal workhorse microphone, able to record anything.

M-Audio M track 2x2m

M-Audio m track 2x2M is a good entry level cross-platform sound card, which is both easy to install and sounds good. It Has 2 inputs and 2 outputs with midi connectivity to connect your midi controllers. It comes with Cubase LE to get you started on your projects.

Audient iD14

Audient iD14 is a great desktop solution to record your sounds with great fidelity and ease. It has console style preamps to plug in your microphones with ease. What makes this one stand out is it’s versatility, intuitive design, and low noise and full Monitor Control Functionality. It comes with £500 worth of plugins and software which includes Cubase LE.

Apollo Twin MKII

Apollo Twin MKII has high quality analog to digital conversion with zero latency monitoring-recording capabilities. It’s also multi-platform and has its own processor which lets you run Uad plugins without putting a load on your computers cpu.

Antelope zen tour

Antelope zen tour don’t let it’s extreme portability fool you. This cross-platform sound card is for the user who wants to take their recording to the next level. What sets this one apart from other sound cards is it doesn’t require expensive DSP plugins, as it includes its own suite of extremely high quality plugins. It has 4 preamps for your microphones and line ins as well as 2 headphone outputs.

Effects

Now that you have the tools to push your creative envelope, you need to learn the basics of different audio effects and how they can affect your sound. Your effects will help convey the right meanings for your confirmations, notifications, error messages, etc… Having the right knowledge about the importance of pitch, movements, direction and timbre, to name a few, is a good way to start drafting your UI sound design. Here are some of the most important ways effects and parameters can speak the audio language.

• ** Frequency/Pitch** : gives a positive or negative feeling
• ** Amplitude** : portrays the right emotion
• ** Timbre** : give your sound the right colour
• ** Panning** : gives a feeling of direction
• ** Length** : Attention grabbing (Short-long vs snappy)

Modulation Effects

Using modulation effects can give your sound a spatial and futuristic quality. For example, if you are creating an app for gamers and want your notifications to sound like a StarWars movie, you would want to use modulation effects and also play with the LFO.

Time-Based Effects

Time-based effects can help polish a sound you are working on. Have you have created the perfect sound, but it ends to abruptly? Reverb would help by leaving a nice reverberation tail providing a sense of depth and space.

Do you want your sound to gently leave a short repetitive tail? Echo/delay to the RESCUE Rescue rescue! Delay can also be used in conjunction with reverb for more impact to the tail of your sound.

Just remember don’t use too much or your sound will be lost in space! When using effects simplicity is key.

Spectral Effects

Spectral effects give your sounds more definition, clarity and a sense of direction.

Equalization can clean up unnecesary frequencies that just cloud your clarity and loose headroom. Smart phones and tablets don’t have extended frequencies like full range sound systems. With EQ you can remove frequencies that are not needed. If your sound is missing clarity, you can brighten it up using EQ. Try using subtractive EQ before boosting any frequencies to give your sound a more natural and less processed sound.

Your EQ can also work as a low, high and band pass filter to create unique sounds. Do you want that radio type effect on your sound? An equalizer is used to achieve this sound.

Panning

Panning will give your sound direction space and width. In most cases: the most problematic area of the sound field is the center, as this is the busiest place within your sound stage. For example: if you have multiple sounds making up your UI notification, you can use panning-to pan certain elements to the left or right channel to give it more of a sense of depth and, to widen the stereo field.

You can also use panning for directional motions to give it more of a realistic approach. For example: remember when you had to unlock your iPhone by swiping to the left? Panning a sound that goes from right to left can give an interaction a more realistic feel.

It is recommended that for every element that is panned one side, another element should be panned to the other to maintain balance within the stereo field.

Dynamic Effects

Dynamic effects provide your sound even control over the dynamic level of your sounds resulting in a more even and levelled sound. Your loud peaks will be lowered and quieter parts increased.

Using a compressor, the dynamic range is effectively reduced and evened out. A compressor can make your sound translate better on your mobile devices preventing unwanted distortion and peaks.

Digital sounds can often sound lifeless and thin, Saturation can be used in various ways to add warmth and life. If used correctly and subtle, it can really bring a unique energy and vibe to your sound. Saturation can be used as a form of compression and subtle distortion. Be careful because to much saturation can really distort and smear your sound. It does not always work, but used in the right context- it can really make your sound stand out.

Pitch And Time

Using pitch and time-based effects can really convey a message to your users-when used right. When we get hungry our stomachs growl with a low pitched aggressive tone. We not only feel hungry, but also get a notification as well to let us know its time to eat! This is an example of an important notification which requires a sound to underline the action. Lets look at a few ways you can you can manipulate pitch and time-based effects properly to represent the actual UI action.

Before using pitch to convey your message here is an understanding of Chord progression.

Major chords give a feeling of happiness and positive emotions, while minor chords give a off a dark and sad emotional feeling. Dissonance gives off an eery feeling, so unless you’re creating a scary app; I would not use these type of chords.

Ascending sounds scales can give a rising feeling, while descending sound scale give a sense of decrease.

Using different chord progressions can give a bipolar experience. For example, go all major chords with a minor chord at the end and you get a confident feeling with a moment of doubtfulness. Using a series of minor chords followed by a major chord can narrate a tough journey and then a successful return home. Alternating between the two types of chords can portray confusion. using a series of minor chords followed by a major chord can narrate a tough journey and then a successful return home.

Pitch

Lets say you have found or created the perfect sound for your UI message notification but now need a similar sound for the message sent notification, Pitch shifting the sound at a higher or lower pitch will give the opposite feeling. When apple created their sound for receiving a message while in the text window, You’ll notice it’s a low pitched descending sound and when you send your text, the same sound at a higher ascending pitch is used. Just remember to use formant mode when using time-stretching plugins to preserve time.

Time-Based effects

Fast time-based UI sounds or effects should be used for quick UI actions, while slow and repetitive sounds and effects should be used for longer UI actions. You find the perfect swoosh sound for your UI action but it’s too slow and irritating instead of accentuating the action, this is a perfect example of when a time-stretch plugin can be used to speed up your sound. This can save you time when creating or looking for your sounds.

Detail And Translation

To ensure perfect user translation to your sounds/actions, make sure to test your UI extensively to ensure that the message conveyed by your sounds gives the right impression it’s designed for. Remember your sound won’t grab your users attention if it annoys and bores them musically. The sound that you will choose will play a big part in how your app is recognized. It will be the voice that represents your product-so take advantage of that and create the best UI sound for your app.

After you have learned and created your own sounds remember to always test it on your iPhone and on headphones. Professional audio engineers test their music mixes on multiple sound systems to make sure that translation is 100% on any systems its played on.

Conclusion

There is a lot we have learned about sound design and recording. When and when not to use sounds, we’ve also covered the tools and effects needed to make high-quality ui sounds and recordings. There are many ways to record and create ui sounds but being creatively simple and disciplined is fundamental.

If you’ve started your sounds and its not at the level you want it to be, you can always get your sound close to the feel you’re portraying and then hire a professional sound designer and show him the direction you want for your sounds. With the perfect elements, your sounds will captivate your users and make your UI irresistible and noticeable, with it’s own hook.